Burlington, N.J. — Tyler Lydon split a column of defenders, dribbled into the lane with his left hand and dunked.

Syracuse's Class of 2015 forward Tyler Lydon of the Albany City Rocks played two AAU scrimmage games in New Jersey on April 19, 2014.Donna Ditota | dditota@syracuse.com

The crowd ringing the three bustling basketball courts at Life Center Academy here gasped. Lydon, who is 6-foot-9 and a reedy 200 pounds, played two scrimmage games with his AAU Albany City Rocks last Saturday. In the second game, his Albany team faced Team Final and Malachi Richardson, who will be a Syracuse teammate starting in 2015-16.

Summary

Lydon is long and lean. He possesses a bouncy athleticism and a non-stop motor. He runs the floor with speedy determination. His shooting range extends deep beyond the 3-point line. And he can get past defenders to reach the rim.

Observations from last Saturday

Lydon never tires. He runs and runs and runs. He sets screens and makes cuts and posts up. He sprints from end line to end line.

"I've really worked on my conditioning, getting bigger and stronger so I think the game is coming a little bit easier to me right now," Lydon said.

He jumps really well. He was all over the interior on Saturday, blocking shots, soaring for rebounds.

"When I was younger, I worked on jumping because I always wanted to dunk the ball," he said. "And I have an older brother and I wanted to jump higher than he did. He pushed me a lot throughout my whole basketball career."

He gets to the rim fairly easily for a player his size. He does not always finish, but that ability will evolve once his body matures and he can better absorb contact.
Occasionally, in the frenetic pace of an AAU tournament game, he tried to do too much with the ball and turned it over.

"I've been getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning every day," he said, "working with my coach on ball-handling, moves like that — driving the ball, hitting pull-ups, stuff like that."

He will spend the summer traveling the AAU circuit. Lydon acknowledges he needs to get bigger and stronger to compete on an elite college basketball level.

"I'm going to be lifting every day," he said. "I'm playing with the City Rocks, so I'll be playing in a bunch of tournaments with them. If other things come up, I might do something else."